Scan barcode
A review by bookph1le
The Escape Room by Megan Goldin
3.0
I have mixed feelings about this book, and I'll try to give a brief summary of them without getting too spoiler-y. However, read this review at your own risk as I will give a few details away.
On the one hand, I struggled with this book at times. I think the author does far, far too much summarizing. Examples of the dreaded telling instead of showing abound, especially when it comes to the group trapped in the elevator. We don't get to *see* any of them doing anything from their own perspective, outside of what they do in the elevator. The Sara Hall sections tell us what she sees them doing and what Lucy tells her she's witnessed, but Vincent, Sylvie, Sam, and Jules first-hand accounts are never heard. The author gives all of them motives for the things they've done, but rather than let the reader see why, she tells us. We're told about Jules's alcoholism, about Vincent's underhanded nature, about Sylvie's feelings for her latest man, and about Sam's wife driving him to the brink of bankruptcy, but at no point does the reader get to see any of these things. Honestly, I felt like a lot of these sections read more like the author's notes, as in "Okay, this character is motivated by x because y happens and z is in his/her history..."
On the other, I did enjoy where this book went. It didn't surprise me one iota, but I was okay with that. I knew what the twist was going to be, but I was all about discovering the how behind it as well as the revealing of the various whys. Without giving too much away, I will say I felt a deep sense of satisfaction at this novel's ending. It was basically exactly what I hoped the author was going to do with it, as far as what happens to the person behind the fake escape room.
One thing I think this book does well is take a cast of pretty unsympathetic and unlikable characters (with the exception of Lucy, who I wish had been given more page time) and make their story compelling. I wouldn't have wanted to touch any of these people with a fifty-foot pole, but I was very drawn into their saga and curious about where it would go next.
Yet on the downside, the book is also very repetitive. It's like the author is pounding the reader over the head with the idea that these are bad, bad people, that these investment bankers make great villains because they are greedy and ruthless. I think for most of us who weathered the financial downturn, it's not at all unbelievable that investment bankers would act this badly. However, I didn't need the author to tell me six million times that these people were profligate with their wealth, that they would stop at nothing to achieve their ends, and that Stanhope was an evil institution. I'm starting to feel like authors and/or publishers think readers are stupid and incapable of picking up on subtlety in writing, and so they need to beat us over the head with a book's themes just in case we might have missed the 11 billionth reference to how harsh the working atmosphere is at Stanhope. I. Get. It. Already.
So in the end, I think this book felt kind of half baked. It had an entertaining idea and a compelling plot, but it could have used some more thought and revision.
On the one hand, I struggled with this book at times. I think the author does far, far too much summarizing. Examples of the dreaded telling instead of showing abound, especially when it comes to the group trapped in the elevator. We don't get to *see* any of them doing anything from their own perspective, outside of what they do in the elevator. The Sara Hall sections tell us what she sees them doing and what Lucy tells her she's witnessed, but Vincent, Sylvie, Sam, and Jules first-hand accounts are never heard. The author gives all of them motives for the things they've done, but rather than let the reader see why, she tells us. We're told about Jules's alcoholism, about Vincent's underhanded nature, about Sylvie's feelings for her latest man, and about Sam's wife driving him to the brink of bankruptcy, but at no point does the reader get to see any of these things. Honestly, I felt like a lot of these sections read more like the author's notes, as in "Okay, this character is motivated by x because y happens and z is in his/her history..."
On the other, I did enjoy where this book went. It didn't surprise me one iota, but I was okay with that. I knew what the twist was going to be, but I was all about discovering the how behind it as well as the revealing of the various whys. Without giving too much away, I will say I felt a deep sense of satisfaction at this novel's ending. It was basically exactly what I hoped the author was going to do with it, as far as what happens to the person behind the fake escape room.
One thing I think this book does well is take a cast of pretty unsympathetic and unlikable characters (with the exception of Lucy, who I wish had been given more page time) and make their story compelling. I wouldn't have wanted to touch any of these people with a fifty-foot pole, but I was very drawn into their saga and curious about where it would go next.
Yet on the downside, the book is also very repetitive. It's like the author is pounding the reader over the head with the idea that these are bad, bad people, that these investment bankers make great villains because they are greedy and ruthless. I think for most of us who weathered the financial downturn, it's not at all unbelievable that investment bankers would act this badly. However, I didn't need the author to tell me six million times that these people were profligate with their wealth, that they would stop at nothing to achieve their ends, and that Stanhope was an evil institution. I'm starting to feel like authors and/or publishers think readers are stupid and incapable of picking up on subtlety in writing, and so they need to beat us over the head with a book's themes just in case we might have missed the 11 billionth reference to how harsh the working atmosphere is at Stanhope. I. Get. It. Already.
So in the end, I think this book felt kind of half baked. It had an entertaining idea and a compelling plot, but it could have used some more thought and revision.